


Stuck in a Rut Extras

by phan_anon



Series: Stuck in a Rut [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, No Smut, Sadly, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:20:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22654642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phan_anon/pseuds/phan_anon
Summary: I came across these two partial chapters for "Stuck in a Rut" that I wrote and then discarded. After consulting people on Twitter, I decided to post them as extras for the main fic. Basically, these are two different versions of the chapter that was originally meant to be Chapter 5. However, after discarding both versions, I decided to tell this part of the story as a flashback in Chapter 6, giving the fic the current time-jump between Chapters 4 and 5. Consider these chapters as expanded, but slightly altered, versions of the flashback scene in Chapter 6.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: Stuck in a Rut [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629691
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 4.1 - Unbreakable Bond v.1

Dan was still fast asleep when a soft knock at the door disturbed Phil in the middle of his reading. The tutors at the Academy were understanding when their pupils needed time off for things like ruts or heats or bonding, but they accepted no excuses when it came to students keeping up with their coursework. Though he had missed a full day of lectures, Phil knew his tutors would expect him to be able to participate fully in the next day’s tutorials.

When he opened the door to his room, he found a Beta house slave named Dylan standing there.

“Your Omega Mother has asked to see you,” whispered Dylan.

“Thank you,” Phil whispered back. “Would you mind sitting here with Dan in case he wakes? I don’t want him to worry about where I’ve gone.” The thought of leaving his mate’s side so soon after bonding was wrenching enough for him, and he wasn’t exhausted from having gone through a heat. He was afraid that if Dan woke and found him gone, he’d try to come looking for him, weak though he was.

“Yes, Alpha Phil,” the Beta replied and offered him a deferential bow of the head.

The walk down to his mother’s quarters was agonizing, with a nagging feeling that he needed to go back and check on his Omega constantly pricking his conscience. He would need to make this conversation quick.

His Mother opened the door to him almost as soon as he knocked, and the very first thing she did was lean up and take a long sniff of his neck. When she pulled back, he saw tears in her eyes.

“Come in,” she murmured, her voice low and husky.

Her sitting room was quiet, apart from the crackling of the fire. It must be past the twins’ bed time now.

“Your Alpha Father will be out on business until late,” she told him as she led him over to a pair of comfy chairs next to the hearth. “He asked me to take care of a few things for you in his place.”

When they’d settled on either side of the cheerful fire, she paused and stared at him with her glistening eyes.

“It feels like just yesterday Dr. Eze was telling me I was carrying an Alpha,” she said, shaking her head a little. “I can’t believe you’re already old enough to be bonded.”

Phil ducked his head and chewed on his lips. He may be nearly grown now, but it still embarrassed him to hear his mum talk like this.

When he glanced up again, he saw that there were tears on her cheeks now, and he felt his own throat start to close up.

“You smell very happy,” she said, smiling despite the wetness on her cheeks. Then she cleared her throat a few times. “But I suppose you’re wondering why I wanted to see you.”

“Yes, please,” he replied, clearing his own throat and trying not to glance toward the door. He hoped she couldn’t tell how anxious he was to be gone again.

“Well, first of all, Julian’s brought your assignments from the Academy for you.” She gestured at a side table next to Phil’s chair where he saw a stack of notebooks and loose pages. Julian was his Beta brother, the youngest child of Omega Lester, and he was a year behind Phil at the Academy. Of course, even if they had been the same age, they wouldn’t be in the same classes. It had always been the tradition to keep Alphas and Betas separated at the Academy. Phil suppressed a sigh at the sight of all the work piled up there. He had a long night ahead of him. 

“Second,” his Mother continued, “I wanted to tell you that I’ve made an appointment for you and Dan to see Dr. Eze Friday afternoon.”

His ears pricked up at that, and he turned back to her with a frown. He knew Dr. Eze well, though he’d never been her patient. The Beta doctor specialized in Omega care and had been treating the Omegas of the Lester household for over twenty years now. She had overseen his birth and those of all his siblings, and it was also she who gave Dan his yearly check-ups and came to see him if he was sick. He figured she’d been called in because of their bonding or Dan’s heat, but he wasn’t sure why he was being included in the appointment.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” his Mother assured him, misreading his frown. “It’s routine for Omegas to get a check-up after bonding.”

“Okay,” Phil nodded. “What time will she be here on Friday?”

“Oh, she isn’t coming here,” she explained with a shake of her head. “You’re going to her office. Dan will need a full pelvic exam, and it will be much easier for the doctor to do that in her own office. I guessed you would want to go along.”

“Oh, of course,” Phil said, understanding at last. He doubted Dan would want to go on a visit like that all by himself, and anyway, just the idea of his mate leaving the safety of their home without Phil by his side made the Alpha feel antsy.

“I suppose he’s still asleep now?” she said after a moment.

“Yeah, he’s been asleep most of the day.” He glanced up at her with a wrinkled brow then. “Is that normal?”

“Yes, quite normal,” she returned with a wry smile. “Especially after his very first heat. Sometime between now and Friday, though, you will need to speak to him about the subject of heat suppressants.”

That took Phil aback. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that Dan might go on heat suppressants. Omegas usually only took them when they didn’t have an Alpha to help them through it. Clearly that wasn’t going to be an issue for Dan.

“Why would he go on heat suppressants?” he asked, genuinely puzzled.

He saw her fold up her lips in a half-smirk as a small snort of laughter passed through her nose.

“Heats aren’t particularly pleasant to go through, my dear,” she murmured. “No Omega I’ve ever known exactly enjoys them.”

“Oh,” Phil said. He’d never even considered that aspect of it before. “Do you think Dan will want to go on suppressants?”

“He might,” she shrugged. “But as his Alpha it will ultimately be up to you to decide what is best. Dr. Eze can explain the different options to you on Friday, but I think it’s best that you and your Omega at least discuss the topic before then.”

Phil nodded slowly, trying to take in everything she was saying. What if Dan did go on heat suppressants? What if he even wanted to stay on them indefinitely? Would that mean they would stop having sex? He didn’t really want that, or at least he didn’t think he wanted that. And of course the Omega would have to go off suppressants once they decided to start their family, but… It wasn’t like they’d ever discussed that before either. When did Dan picture them doing that? In five years? Ten? More? Did he even want children? And what about Phil’s ruts? Could he knot the Omega while he was on suppressants without hurting him? Maybe Phil would need to go on rut suppressants as well…

His Mother was definitely right. He needed to talk all of this out with Dan as soon as possible. He realized she was watching him with a fixed gaze and blushed for a moment under her scrutiny.

“You’re a good Alpha, Phil,” she said when he met her eye. “Your Omega is lucky to have you.”

“I’m lucky to have him, too,” Phil answered at once, thinking of Dan’s beautiful sleeping face and feeling that longing tug to be near him again.

She just smiled.

“I won’t keep you from him any longer, then. Run along, and don’t forget your assignments.”

Back upstairs, he found Dylan sitting at the table with his hands folded in his lap and Dan still lying asleep, his breathing regular and deep.

“Thank you. You can go now,” Phil murmured to the Beta slave, who bowed and left at once.

Phil wanted nothing more than to crawl into the bed beside his mate and bury his nose in his neck and listen to his soft breaths, but he had a whole stack of assignments to finish before he could do that.

The work went more quickly than he’d thought it would. He was afraid that without Dan beside him, helping him when he got stuck or encouraging him when his motivation flagged, the work would be a long, dreary slog. However, Dan was there after all, his scent filling the room and calming Phil, helping him feel relaxed and focused. It was such a strange quirk of Alpha biology that having his bonded Omega nearby, within his sight and smelling content, made him feel so at ease with himself and the world.

The Omega woke a little when his Alpha at last slipped under the covers beside him some hours later, just enough to roll over and curl up against his Alpha’s chest. For his part, Phil found that the Omega’s sleepy scent and warm weight against his body made him drift right off into unconsciousness

**

When Dan woke, his Alpha was gone.

When the realization struck him, he sat bolt upright in bed, eyes raking the room for any sign of him. But he’d sensed at once that the Alpha was nowhere near.

“Shh, shh, no need to fret, dear,” he heard someone say from nearby, and he whipped his head around to see Omega Kat rising from one of the chairs at Phil’s table. “He’s just gone to the Academy, but he’ll be back this afternoon as usual.”

At her words, some of the tension eased from Dan’s body — just enough for him to notice how his every muscle ached. He lay back down with a groan as the other Omega came to stand beside the bed. He gazed up into her sympathetic blue eyes as tears began to form at the corners of his own.

“I know the separation is difficult to bear when you’ve just bonded,” she murmured, reaching out a cool hand to brush the hair back from his forehead. “It was very hard for him to leave you, too.” She breathed out a laugh. “It took his Alpha Father ordering him to go to finally tear him away.”

“I slept through all that?” Dan marveled.

“You need the rest,” she replied, smoothing back an errant curl. “And he needs to attend his lectures.”

Dan pulled a deep breath into his lungs, trying to calm the panicked racing of his heart. His Alpha would be back. He hadn’t been abandoned. Phil would be back.

“It’s difficult for us,” Omega Kat murmured, perching on the edge of the bed. “Omegas like you and I can never be our Alpha’s priority.” Her eyes were fixed on him still, but he could tell her thoughts were focused somewhere outside this room, just the same as his own were. “It gets easer with time.”

Dan nodded, feeling absolutely miserable. Phil had left him behind at home before, of course, when he was ill or on occasions like the other night when Phil’s Alpha Father had taken him out to his club. It had never felt like this before, though, like a piece of him had been ripped away.

“Do you think you can get up and eat some breakfast now?” Omega Kat was asking in her gentle voice. It always struck him how well-bred her voice sounded, when he knew that her birth was as low as his own. Nevertheless, she’d lived among the nobility for most of her life, so he supposed it should come as no surprise. “I promise it’ll help,” she added in a slight wheedling tone.

Dan didn’t really feel up to getting out of bed, but he let her help him up anyway and lead him over to the table where his breakfast had been laid out — something else that normally would have woken him up. When his sore arms began to feel too tired to lift the fork or glass any longer, he let the other Omega help him eat his omelette and drink his orange juice.

“Is it always like this after?” he muttered as he collapsed back against his chair, his plate empty at last.

“No, the first heat is always the worst,” she reassured him. “They get lighter over time, and there are exercises you can do to make them easier for your body to handle.”

He nodded faintly. The thought occurred to him that this really wasn’t fair. After his rut, Phil had got up and gone to the Academy the next day like nothing had even happened. And here Dan was feeling like he’d been run over by a lorry. Being an Omega sucked.

“When you get your energy back in a while, I think you should try taking a walk out in the back garden,” he heard the other Omega saying. “It’s actually sunny today, believe it or not, and the fresh air and exercise will help you feel better faster.”

Dan wanted to object that exercise had never in his life made him feel better about anything, but Omega Kat was his elder, and the mother of his Alpha besides, so it was not his place to disagree with her suggestions.

Fortunately for him, she turned out to be right. The air outside was still frigid, but there was no wind, and the bright sunshine almost felt warm against his face. He walked around amongst the winter flower beds, which looked fresh and dewy after yesterday’s rain storm, and then sat for a while on a stone bench under the bare branches of an old oak tree.

That’s where the twins found him some while later when their morning tutor had let them out for a few hours of outdoor play. While the Beta and Alpha children of the Lester household had all started at the Academy when they were the twins’ age, as Omegas the twins were being educated at home. For many noble Omegas, this meant a basic education in reading, writing, arithmetic, and general knowledge, along with those arts deemed appropriate to an Omega’s more delicate nature, such as drawing, music, or conversation in a few foreign tongues. Alpha Lester was a more progressive-thinking parent, and he had made a point of hiring tutors capable of giving his Omega children as rigorous an education as his other children received at the Academy.

At the moment, though, education was the farthest thought from young Alice and Robert’s minds. Free from the confines of the schoolroom, they were tearing about the garden screaming and chasing one another. When Alice caught sight of Dan, though, she ran up and plopped down on the bench beside him.

“Hello, Omega Dan!” she cried, grinning and waving a hand in his face. Before he’d even had a chance to return her greeting, she wrinkled up her nose and added, “You smell funny today. You smell all stinky, like an Alpha.”

Dan suppressed a laugh.

“I bonded with Alpha Phil. That’s just how I smell now,” he explained.

“Oh,” she replied, looking rather unimpressed. Her nose still wrinkled up, she stated, “You smelled nicer before. I don’t like how Alphas smell. I’m not ever going to bond with some stinky Alpha.”

“Is that so?” Dan said, his voice shaking a little with the laughter he was holding in.

“Yep!” She punctuated the word with a big nod. “I’m going to marry Robert.”

Dan had to cover his mouth with his hand to hide his smile now. He was on the verge of lowering it to tell her she couldn’t get married to her brother of all people, when he caught sight of the determined set of her small mouth. She was only six, after all. Might as well let her hold on to her innocent notions about the world for a while longer.

“What if Robert doesn’t want to marry you?” he asked instead.

She folded her arms and scoffed at that.

“Of course he wants to marry me. Who else is there for him to marry?” Then she turned and called to her brother where he was trying to sneak up behind them from the opposite side of the oak tree. “Robert! You’re going to marry me, right?”

The only reply she got was a mischievous giggle.

“Ro-bert!” she whined. “Tell Dan you’re going to marry me!”

When this was met with silence, she hopped off the bench and dashed away, disappearing around the tree herself while yelling, “Robert! Come back here and say it! Come back here and say it to him!”

Dan was left grinning and shaking his head. When he was her age, he hadn’t been particularly interested in Alphas either, though he’d been fully aware that he would most likely have to bond with one someday. And he had been perfectly right. It would probably be the same for Alice, and Robert as well, though maybe not. As much as Alpha Lester doted on his two youngest children, maybe he would let them follow their own inclinations if they decided they didn’t want to bond. Omegas were allowed to marry Betas nowadays, though the practice was still fairly rare. There were even some who advocated for the legalization of Omega-Omega marriage, though such relationships were still considered scandalously taboo.

As Dan sat frowning to himself in the sunny garden, he began to wonder how he would feel if one of his future Omega children wanted to marry another Omega. It was scary to think about his child being a social outcast, looked down upon, maybe even attacked for who they fell in love with. How would his Alpha react, he wondered? Phil was an easygoing Alpha, in general, at least when it came to his mate. What kind of father would he be? Stern, but understanding, as his own Alpha Father was? Or would parenthood change him, make him harsher and more unforgiving?

Dan frowned even more deeply at the thought, and a little shiver passed through him. Maybe it was time to go inside and lie down again. 

About the same time, Phil was walking off the football pitch and into the Alpha locker room at the Academy. The moment they were through the doors and out of sight of their tutors, the other Alphas started crowding around him, whooping and slapping him on the back.

“Congratulations, mate!” he heard one of them say, a girl named Ellen, who was one of the only other bonded Alphas in his year. “Welcome to the club.”

That drew a few laughs from the others, and Phil smiled and thanked her. He didn’t exactly love being the center of attention, but he was pretty proud of being bonded now. It made him feel more mature, more important. 

“We all missed you yesterday,” Sristi added as they all made their way over to the showers, stripping off their P.E. clothes as they went.

“Bet you didn’t miss us, though,” Patrick called out, and that set everyone laughing again.

“Yeah, not with that sexy little Omega to knot,” someone else added, bringing whoops of laughter and wolf whistles from the crowd of young Alphas piling into the showers. Phil frowned and tried not give any sign of encouragement. He didn’t like where this conversation was going.

“Mm, I can’t wait until I get to knot my first Omega,” one of the other Alphas added, June, who was one of the ones who didn’t have her own Omega slave. “What was it like?”

Phil opened his mouth, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t be utterly embarrassing, but Ellen beat him to it.

“It’s the best fucking feeling in the world,” she called from further down the line of communal shower heads. “God it feels so good to get your cock inside a tight, little Omega.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Patrick agreed from beside Phil, who was busying himself opening a bottle of shampoo and squeezing out a sizable amount into his palm. He really did not want to be a part of this conversation. “How about you, Phil? I noticed your Omega didn’t make it to the Academy today.” He felt an elbow nudging his side but didn’t look up to acknowledge it. “Bet you fucked him so hard he couldn’t walk, huh?”

For a second, Phil was too busy trying to ignore what the other boy was saying to register his words, but then their meaning sank in at last, and Phil suddenly felt a sort of panic rising inside him. His eyes flashed up to Patrick’s face, wide with concern.

“Wait, what? You don’t think…? Can that really happen?” he asked. He’d heard lots of people use that phrase, but he’d never thought much of it before. Now, though, he couldn’t stop thinking of Dan last night, and the way he had struggled to even sit up after they’d finished bonding. He’d thought he was merely exhausted from his heat, but what if it was worse than that? What if Phil had been too rough with him? What if he was somehow injured, and it was all Phil’s fault?

Patrick was staring at him like he had gone off his rocker, but Phil was barely aware of the other boy’s expression.

“It’s just a turn of phrase,” the other Alpha was muttering, though his protests were falling on deaf ears.

Fortunately, Emerson chose that moment to step into the conversation.

“You don’t know what it’s like when you’re bonded, Patrick,” he called from Phil’s other side. “You shouldn’t even jokingly suggest to an Alpha that their bonded Omega might be hurt.”

“Oh,” Patrick said, then glanced back at the stricken expression on Phil’s face. “Sorry, mate.”

Phil nodded and accepted his apology, but the damage was already done. He could hardly concentrate for the rest of the day, he was so consumed with worry over Dan. His tutors called him out in class more than once that afternoon for not paying attention. He was really trying his best, but he couldn’t stop thinking of all the horrible things that might have gone wrong with Dan. Had he even woken up this morning? Phil had been made to leave the house while Dan was still asleep, reluctant though he’d been to go. What if Dan had spent the whole day in bed, wracked with pain, wondering how his new mate could have abandoned him so soon?

Once lectures were finally ended for the day, he practically ran home, arriving at the front door of the Lester household dripping with sweat despite the chill temperatures outside. He had only the barest words of greeting for the Beta house slave who took his coat from him at the door, and he tore up the stairs the moment he was free of the heavy woolen garment. When he flung open the door to his bedroom, he didn’t know whether to be relieved or terrified to find it empty. On the one hand, clearly Dan hadn’t spent the entire day laid up in bed. On the other hand, what if he’d been so poorly that he’d had to go to hospital. Dashing inside, Phil hurried over to the bed sniffing the air all around it to try to get a sense of how recently the Omega had been there.

The room, and the bed especially, smelled strongly of both of them, both their unbonded and bonded scents. The Omega’s most recent scent seemed to be hours old already, which sent the Alpha off into a panic again. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to him that his family would probably have notified him as soon as possible were anything seriously wrong with his Omega. He was on the verge of dashing out of the room again to try to track down someone who might know what had happened to Dan when he caught sight of a single sheet of white paper lying on the table.

He raced over, snatched it up, speed-read it, and then let out a deep sigh of relief. It was Dan’s handwriting, and he had written Phil to tell him that he would be in Omega Kat’s quarters, helping her with the twins.

Within a couple of minutes he was knocking on the door to his Omega Mother’s quarters, sniffing the air to try to catch his Omega’s scent. He wasn’t still worried that Dan was hurt — well, not seriously worried, at least — but he was anxious to see him nevertheless. Instinct had told him it was a bad idea to leave his mate so soon after a heat, though his rational brain had been able to overcome this by reminding him that Dan was safe and well-looked-after at home. Still, an undercurrent of worry remained. He needed to see his mate, that he was safe and well and happy, with his own eyes.

It was his mother who opened the door, breaking into a knowing smile the moment she saw him stood there.

“Dan’s fine,” she murmured under her breath, and he had to marvel for a moment at how well she could read him. “I thought he needed something to keep his mind off being away from you, so I asked him to come down and help with the twins.”

“Thanks,” Phil said, offering her a genuine, if distracted, smile. She stood on her tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek and then stepped aside to let him pass through.

His eyes scanned the room and quickly locked onto Dan. He was kneeling on the floor beside a low table near the bay windows at the other end of the room, helping Robert with something he was making out of modeling clay. Alice was on his other side with her own pile of lumpy clay shapes that she was forming into something that vaguely resembled a human.

“Look, Dan, look at mine!” she was saying, leaning over to tug at the older Omega’s sleeve to get his attention. “Daaaaan,” she whined.

“Just a second, Alice,” he said over his shoulder to her as he held a piece in place for Robert.

Her lower lip jutted out at that and her forehead wrinkled up, and Phil could see that a meltdown was imminent, so he rushed over and knelt down beside her.

“Why don’t you show me first?” he suggested, smiling and gesturing toward her clay person. “Tell me about your sculpture.”

Unfortunately, her lip only jutted out further, and she crossed her arms and turned away from him.

“Not _you_ ,” she stated to the wall. “I’m mad at you today.”

He blinked at her in surprise for a second but was distracted from her cold shoulder by Dan turning a blazing bright smile on him.

“Alpha Phil! You’re home,” he said, unable to restrain himself from leaning over and throwing his arms around his mate, nuzzling his nose against his neck. Phil’s arms came up at once, pulling him close, and he felt his whole body relax as he breathed in the Omega’s scent.

Next to him, Alice let out a loud sound of disgust, jumped to her feet, and then ran over to her mother, who was standing nearby, and buried her face in her skirts.

“And what’s gotten into you today, Miss Alice?” Omega Kat asked, placing a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Why are you being so rude to your older brother?”

She just shook her head, keeping her face pressed against her mother’s thigh, so Dan interjected an explanation.

“Apparently I smell bad now,” he said, dropping his arms from around his Alpha and trying to hide a slight blush that was creeping up his neck. “She’s mad at Alpha Phil for making me smell like him.”

“Alice!” Omega Kat exclaimed. “That wasn’t a very nice thing to have said.”

Alice let out a little whimpering sound, her face still hidden, so her mother dropped to her knees in front of her, took hold of her shoulders, and looked up into her eyes.

“You should apologize to Dan and to your brother for saying mean things about them,” she said in a kind but stern tone.

“But I _don’t_ like it,” Alice insisted.

“That doesn't matter,” Omega Kat returned, raising her eyebrows. “Just because you think something doesn’t mean you need to say it.”

The little girl sniffed for a moment and then nodded.

“Are you going to apologize now?”

She nodded again.

“Go on then,” and her mother stood and gave her a gentle turn until she was facing the Alpha and Omega who were still seated very close to one another on the floor beside the table.

“I’m sorry I said you were stinky,” she muttered to Phil, who ducked his head in acknowledgement of her apology and bit his lip to keep from laughing. “And I’m sorry you had to bond with a stinky Alpha,” she tossed toward Dan before sticking out her tongue and darting out of the room.

“Alice!” her mother called, chasing after her.

Phil couldn’t hold in his laughter any longer. It spluttered out of him as he clutched his middle and bent almost double, his whole body shaking. Dan smiled a little, too, but only a little. On his other side, Robert started tugging on his sleeve, so he turned to see the little boy staring up at him with a concerned expression.

“What’s so funny? Why is Phil laughing?” he demanded.

Dan let out a breath of laughter through his nose.

“Because your sister is being very silly right now.” He saw more questions forming behind the young Omega’s eyes, so he headed them off by pointing at his sculpture and saying, “You’re almost finished. Would you like Phil to help you with the last bit?”

The little boy’s eyes lit up at that, and he turned an eager grin on his older brother.

“Yes, please!”

So Dan scooted over to Robert’s other side, and Phil shuffled over so that he was sat next to the boy, and between the three of them, they managed to build a rather misshapen but still oddly cute blue clay lion.

It took Omega Kat a few minutes to wrangle her wayward youngest daughter, but when she at last had, she shooed Dan and Phil out of the room, saying they had more important things to be doing.

They held hands all the way back up to Phil’s room, and the Alpha was very relieved to see that his Omega could walk just fine and didn’t appear to be in any pain. Once they were alone with the door shut behind them, they were in each other’s arms almost at once, bodies pressed together and lips feeling their way across each other as though they had spent years apart rather than simply hours.

Now that they were bonded, everything felt the same but better, easier and more comfortable, like their lips had been molded to fit each other perfectly, like each pair of arms were the perfect size for holding the other’s body.

“I missed you,” Phil breathed when he pulled back at last, “so much. I couldn’t think about anything else all day.”

“Neither could I,” Dan replied, laying his cheek on the Alpha’s shoulder and breathing out a sigh of contentment. The relief he felt at finally being near his Alpha again was so strong he almost wanted to cry. “Can I come with you to the Academy tomorrow?” he asked, “I don’t think I could stand being away from you all day again.”

It was on the tip of Phil’s tongue to give a resounding yes to that statement, but then he frowned, wondering if the Omega was really fully recovered or not. He didn’t want to risk his health just to satisfy his own selfish longings.

“Maybe you should stay home just one more day. Just until you get your strength back,” he managed to say, though it pained him to imagine suffering through another day like today.

“I do have my strength back,” Dan protested, raising his head and stepping back to meet his Alpha’s eyes. “I couldn’t have spent the afternoon chasing after the twins if I didn’t!”

Phil frowned at that.

“Were they really wild? Maybe you shouldn’t have helped out today,” he said, searching the Omega’s face for some sign that he was overly tired. He did look a little worn, though less so than Phil had expected. He was probably overreacting, but he was finding it difficult to ignore the instinct to protect his mate that had been pricking him all day long.

“I’m fine, Alpha Phil. Really, I am,” the Omega stated, meeting the Alpha’s gaze with as steady a look as he could muster. “I’m still a bit tired and a bit sore, but it’s nothing another good night of sleep can’t fix.”

Phil nodded and swallowed the argument that was even now building inside him. If Dan said he was fine, he should believe him. Besides, they were going to see the doctor tomorrow anyway. If there was anything wrong with Dan, she would be able to take care of him. Which reminded him…

“Did my mum tell you that we have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow?”

Dan smiled and nodded. When Omega Kat had first told him about it, he’d been nervous. He’d never had that type of examination before, and it sounded embarrassing and even kind of scary. However, the older Omega had been very patient in answering all of his questions about what it would be like, and when she told him that Phil would be there the whole time, he felt sure he was up to the challenge.

“We’re going right after you finish your lectures for the day, right?”

“Right,” Phil agreed, nibbling at his lip. He wasn’t sure exactly how to ask his next question, but he figured it would be best to just get it over with. “What do you think about possibly going on heat suppressants?”

He could almost see Dan’s thoughts pass across his features: first his eyebrows rose in surprise at the suggestion, and then they drew together and his mouth folded up in a frown as he fully took in what Phil had said. Then the frown turned to a look of confusion.

“Do you want me to go on heat suppressants?” he asked, clearly puzzled.

“Um, well,” Phil said, dropping his arms from around Dan and raising one hand to scratch the back of his neck. “It’s just, my mum said that heats are really unpleasant, and I could tell that your heat really wore you out, so I was thinking… Maybe if you don’t like having heats, you could go on suppressants for now, and I’ll go on rut suppressants… Just until we’re older, of course!”

As he spoke, the Omega’s expression had changed from confusion to comprehension to amusement to fondness. Seeing the warmth in his mate’s eyes, Phil felt a corresponding warmth creeping up from his chest and into his cheeks.

“Alpha,” the Omega said, and the word made Phil’s heart clench with happiness, “I love you more than anyone in the whole world.”

“R-really?” Phil said, feeling the warmth overtake his entire face in a blush.

“Really,” Dan said, standing up on tiptoe so that he could place a kiss on the end of the other boy’s nose. “And, no, I don’t want to go on heat suppressants.”

“Are you sure?” Phil couldn’t help feeling that going through heat was really too hard on Dan, especially as young as he still was. If he could relieve his pain or make things easier for him in any way, he thought he would be willing to do anything. “I really don’t mind. If you’re worried that I’ll be angry with you or try to find another Omega or something, I promise that’s not—“

“No, I’m not worried about that,” the Omega said, suppressing a strong desire to roll his eyes. “I actually, um, kind of enjoyed it.” He dropped his gaze toward their feet, embarrassed to be admitting this, even to his Alpha. “Not the heat itself. I mean, that wasn’t very fun, but…um…the part where we had sex…and you knotted me… Ahem,” he coughed, “Yeah, I liked that part a lot.”

“Oh,” Phil said, feeling a fluttering in his stomach. The truth was, he’d quite enjoyed that part of it as well. “But, you know, I, uh, I think we can still have sex even when you aren’t in heat. I mean, if you wanted to.”

Dan didn’t look up from the floor as he answered.

“I definitely want to,” he rushed to say. “But I want to… I mean, I liked being knotted too.” By now his whole face was red, and he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to look Phil in the eye again.

“Oh,” Phil said again, the fluttering in his stomach turning to more of a twisting, and why was his heart beating so hard all of a sudden? “Okay. Then, um, when we talk to the doctor tomorrow, I’ll ask her just to put you on regular birth control.”

“Okay,” Dan agreed.

They stood like that for a moment longer, neither able to meet the other’s eye, the empty space between them full of an odd tension. At last, Phil cleared his throat.

“Better get started on homework,” he said, his voice a little bit too loud.

“I’ll get you some water,” Dan replied a little bit too quickly, and he had spun on his heel and hurried out the door almost before he’d finished speaking.

They exchanged very few more words throughout the rest of the evening, as the Alpha worked on his homework and the Omega did his best to stay out of his way. This proved harder than either of them had expected. With their sensitive noses, they’d always been able to smell more or less what mood the other was in, but now that they were bonded, it was practically as though they could read one another’s thoughts. Dan was sat all the way on the other side of the room from where Phil was slouched over his desk, and yet he could almost physically feel the agitated thoughts roiling out from Dan’s mind. 

The Omega, on the other hand, was doing his best to control his thoughts, to not dwell on how mortified he felt about what he’d admitted to the Alpha earlier, to not agonize over whether Phil was thinking he was utterly shameless now. He could feel the Alpha’s distraction all the way from the other side of the room, and he knew it must be at least partially his fault.

When it finally came time for bath and then bed, they both had a very difficult time just relaxing and falling asleep. At first, the Omega slid into bed and snuggled right up next to the Alpha, but this caused both of their heart rates to shoot up to extremely rapid levels almost at once. Eventually, without discussing it, they moved apart again, but both lay awake for a long time in the dark, trying to remain as still as possible to let the other fall asleep. Phil kept wondering how they had managed to sleep together so easily and naturally the past few nights, while Dan kept trying to think of just the right thing to say to dispel this sudden awkwardness between them.

They woke curled up next to each other, and that was something, at least, but they were both exhausted. Neither had got more than a few hours of sleep.

Dan woke first, as years of practice had trained his body to wake before his Master did. He let out a long sigh, wishing he could stay there next to Phil under the warm duvet for the rest of the day. Instead, he slid out of bed as quietly as he could, wanting to let the Alpha sleep for as long as he could before he woke him, got dressed in the chill of the February morning, and then headed downstairs for breakfast.

By the time Phil woke, the space next to him in bed had cooled and Dan was stood at the wardrobe across the room, pulling out Phil’s uniform to get it ready for him to wear.

“G’morning,” the Alpha rasped in his sleepless voice. The Omega turned bleary eyes on him and managed a quick smile.

“Good morning, Alpha Phil. They just brought up your breakfast, if you’re ready to get up and eat it.”

Phil nodded and forced himself to shove his covers off and roll out of bed. He went about his morning routine in a zombie-like state, and Dan mostly stayed out of his way until it was time to dress him.

When the Omega stepped up to him and started unbuttoning his night shirt, the Alpha suddenly felt his heart rate spike again. If he’d had any more energy, he would have told him to stop. Instead, he just stood there, letting himself feel the light touches of the Omega’s fingertips brushing his chest and abdomen as he worked his way down the front of the shirt. When his shirt was off and the Omega’s fingers reached for his pajama bottoms, he did stop him though.

“I, uh… I can do that part,” he muttered.

Dan’s hands dropped to his sides, and his eyes fell towards the floor. Otherwise he might have noticed that, when the Alpha’s pajamas slipped down to his ankles, they revealed that he was already half-hard. By the time Dan looked up again, though, the Alpha had grabbed his trousers off their hanger and yanked them on. Without a word spoken between them, Dan helped his Master into his shirt and then his blazer and tie, and then they were ready to go.

Needless to say, they were both very quiet on the way to the Academy. Phil made Dan walk beside him again, instead of behind, but this time they didn’t hold hands. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to. It was just neither of them knew if the other wanted it as well.

During the Alpha’s games class that morning, the other Omegas crowded around Dan again, congratulating him on his new status as a bonded Omega.

“Did it hurt much?” asked Gerald in a low voice. There weren’t any students or tutors anywhere nearby, but the Omegas knew it was better to keep their conversation discreet nevertheless.

Dan shook his head and gave the other boy a confused look.

“No, it didn’t hurt at all. Well, unless you mean the biting part. That hurt a little bit,” he amended.

“You’re so lucky,” Carol muttered. “My Alpha wouldn’t know the word ‘gentle’ if it bit her in the arse.”

The other Omegas giggled at that. It was rare that any of them had the guts to curse out loud, even just amongst themselves.

“You’re lucky that your heat is over, too. Now you don’t have to worry about doing anything again for awhile,” Perry put in. “When you go for your doctor’s visit, they’ll probably tell your Alpha to leave you alone when you aren’t in heat.”

“Yeah,” Carol nodded her agreement. “They can actually hurt you if they try to do anything when you aren’t in heat.”

Dan frowned. He’d heard Omegas say things like that before, but he’d thought it was just because their Alphas were too rough with them. But if Perry and Carol’s doctors had told them they couldn’t have sex when they weren’t in heat, maybe that meant that he and Phil couldn’t either.

“What does your mark look like?” Laurel asked, interrupting his train of thought. “You have to show us sometime, when it’s warmer.”

Dan had sneaked a few peeks at the mark in the mirror the day before, while Phil was still out, though most of what he’d been able to see were a few bruises and the already-healing puncture wounds. The mark itself wasn’t actually the Alpha’s teeth marks. Those were very light and would heal and disappear quickly. Instead, a bonding mark was a sort of chemical stain just below the surface of the skin, the aftermath of the rush of hormones the bonding had released.

“I don’t really know what it looks like yet,” he shrugged. “I haven’t been able to get a good look at it yet.”

“I bet it’s really bright,” Perry murmured, and everyone looked at him. “Because you two are so close already.”

Dan had seen Perry and Carol’s marks before. Perry’s was a splash of vibrant brick red over his right shoulder, while Carol’s was a duller maroon. It was normal for the mark to be darker when the bond was new, and bonding marks generally brightened over time as the pair grew closer and strengthened their connection.

Dan hid a blush and just shook his head.

“I doubt it looks any different than anyone else’s,” he muttered.

The others dropped it after that, and the conversation moved onto which of them they all thought would be bonded next. Dan had a hard time paying attention, though. He kept thinking about what the others had said. By the end of the day, he had decided that, as embarrassing as it would be, he was going to ask Dr. Eze about it when he saw her that afternoon.

There was a car waiting for them outside the Academy when lectures ended later that day, and the two of them piled into the backseat, offering greetings to the driver but not saying much of anything to each other. They’d spent a whole day together going about their normal routine, with Dan at the backs of Phil’s classrooms, or sitting next to him at lunch, or carrying his books for him between classes, and yet somehow the awkwardness between them still remained. 

Each of them blamed himself for it. Dan kept thinking it must be because he had shocked Phil by saying he didn’t want to go on heat suppressants yesterday, while Phil was convinced it was because Dan could sense how hard a time he was having keeping his hands off the Omega.

Phil finally broke the silence a few minutes after they’d checked in at the doctor’s office, as they sat in the waiting room. He could feel the nervousness slowly rising inside of Dan, so he reached a hand over to take Dan’s and give it a reassuring squeeze.

“You’ve known Dr. Eze for years now. She’ll take good care of you,” he murmured, keeping his voice low because they weren’t alone. Across the way, a hugely pregnant Omega sat thumbing through an old magazine.

“Thanks,” Dan whispered back, clutching onto Phil’s hand and refusing to let it go now that he finally had a hold of it.

They sat like that for a few minutes more, fingers intertwined as they watched a scrub-wearing staff member come out and usher the pregnant Omega into the back. At last, the staff member came out and called Dan’s name.

“Omega Howell?”

They both stood, and Dan gripped onto Phil’s hand even tighter, his knuckles going white.

The assistant smiled at them.

“Just Omega Howell for now. Dr. Eze would like to ask him a few questions first,” they said, beckoning Dan over with a brisk gesture.

The Omega drew in several deep breaths, trying to calm the racing of his heart. He tried to remember everything that Omega Kat had told him yesterday — that the doctor was very patient and gentle and that the examination was completely routine. It still took a lot of effort for him to let go of his Alpha’s hand and follow the assistant into the back.

Dr. Eze was a small, energetic woman with a slight Nigerian accent and close-cropped bleached hair. The assistant led Dan back into an office where the doctor was sat at a desk. She smiled and beckoned him over to a low, comfy-looking chair near her own as the assistant closed the door behind him.

“Hello, there, Dan. How are you today?” she asked, picking up a clipboard and pen and holding them ready in her lap.

“I’m fine,” he squeaked out through tight lips, and then, realizing that he sounded very not fine, added, “Kind of nervous.”

She deepened her smile, her dark eyes twinkling at him.

“That’s completely normal. I just want to ask you a few questions, and then I’ll have Becca show you back to the examination room, where your Alpha will be waiting for you. Okay?”

Dan nodded, sucking in a few more deep breaths.

“Good, good,” she added, her voice low and soothing. She picked up her pen and clipboard, and asked, “How is your body feeling? Do you hurt anywhere?”

“Um, just my shoulder a bit,” Dan said. “And, um, my leg muscles are still a little sore, but that’s it.” He felt red heat spreading across his face.

“Nowhere else?” the doctor asked, scribbling something down on her clipboard. “Any difficulty doing normal activities, like walking or using the bathroom?”

He shook his head, feeling completely mortified.

“Very good,” she nodded, making a few more notes. “Do you mind taking off your jumper and opening your shirt for just a moment so that I can examine your shoulder?”

Dan smiled at her and shook his head. She’d seen him with his shirt off loads of times over the years, so he had no qualms quickly pulling his jumper over his head and unbuttoning his uniform shirt enough to expose his left shoulder. Dr. Eze wheeled forward a bit in her desk chair and bent over to examine the bruised skin.

He saw her eyebrows rise, and then she scooted back and looked him in the eye.

“Was this the first time Alpha Phil has knotted you?” she asked, picking up her pen and clipboard again.

Dan nodded, starting to button up his shirt again.

Dr. Eze frowned.

“But it’s not the first time he’s bitten you?”

Dan’s forehead wrinkled up for a moment, but then he realized what she meant.

“Oh, that other mark was just from Monday,” he rushed to explain. “Alpha Phil had his rut then, but he didn’t want to bond with me because we didn’t know I was already starting my heat.”

“And he didn’t knot you then?” Dr. Eze was still frowning, her pen sitting still above the clipboard.

The Omega shook his head again.

“He didn’t want to do it before I had my first heat,” he said.

“I see,” she replied, scribbling something down at last, though her frown had yet to disappear. Then she set aside her pen and clipboard and leaned forward. “You know, Dan, many Alphas will try to excuse their behavior while they’re in rut by saying they couldn’t help it, but that’s simply not the case. Humans are not animals. Our higher brains are capable of controlling our urges. Anyone that is capable of waiting until the appropriate time to act on urges such as hunger or the need to urinate is capable of controlling themselves during a heat or a rut.”

Dan nodded furiously. He was starting to realize that Dr. Eze was getting the wrong impression.

“No, I understand that. Alpha Phil didn’t do anything to me that I didn’t want him to. I, um, I liked it when he bit me.” He mumbled this last bit. Why did he have to keep admitting to such embarrassing things?

“Very well then,” Dr. Eze nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact. “But if your Alpha ever does anything to you that you don’t want him to do, or if he hurts you, I want you to tell me. Okay? There are laws protecting Omegas like you. You don’t have to put up with something like that just because you’re a slave.”

“Yes, Dr. Eze, but I don’t think you need to worry,” Dan smiled. “Phil takes very good care of me.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow again. She hadn’t missed the slip of the tongue that had led the Omega to drop his Alpha’s title. She still had her reservations, but she couldn’t deny that the Omega’s bonding mark was one of the strongest she’d ever seen in a newly-bonded couple. Perhaps there really was nothing to worry about.

“Well, is there anything else you would like to discuss before we begin the examination?” she asked, reaching for her clipboard and making a note to schedule a follow-up appointment with the couple in a few months, just to be safe.

“Oh!” Dan exclaimed, smacking himself on the forehead. How could he have forgotten? “I was wondering, um… Well, you see, I heard that it’s, um, well, dangerous for us to…you know…have sex when I’m not in heat?” He didn’t know why he was so nervous about asking the doctor this question. He was never nervous when he was discussing sex with his Omega friends. Maybe he was just worried about what the answer would be.

The doctor nodded, her expression serious.

“I often caution against non-heat penetrative sex,” she confirmed. “Other sexual behaviors, such as oral sex or outer sex, are more suitable for when an Omega is not in heat. However, if your Alpha is capable of being very careful, it is possible.”

“Oh,” Dan said, not sure whether this was a good answer or not. He knew Phil was very capable of being careful with him, but… “So, is it dangerous then?”

She made an equivocal gesture with her hands.

“It can be, for a male Omega especially,” she said. “Your body will provide no natural lubrication, and you will have to be carefully stretched beforehand. You see, the entrance to your uterus is only open during heat. That’s part of the reason why you can only become pregnant during heat. At other times, it is closed off by an organ called the cloacal flap. It’s sort of like the epiglottis in your throat that separates your trachea from your esophagus. Non-heat penetrative sex that is too rough can dislodge the cloacal flap or even damage it. In severe cases, this can lead to sepsis, infertility, or even death.”

Dan swallowed hard.

“Oh,” he said again.

The doctor smiled at him then.

“I’m not trying to scare you, Dan,” she assured him. “I just want you to be informed about the risks. No sexual behavior is completely without risk. If you would like, though, I can explain to you and your Alpha what precautions to take to minimize the risks.”

He bit his lip and thought about it for a moment. Then slowly he nodded his head.

The doctor let him go then, calling for her assistant, who led him down a short corridor to one of the examination rooms. He found Phil perched on the edge of a chair there, staring down at his hands while chewing on his lip.

He hopped up as soon as Dan walked in and came over to hover at his side throughout the rest of their time there. The examination wasn’t Dan’s favorite thing he’d ever been through, but Dr. Eze’s brisk manner and Phil’s hand in his the whole time made it tolerable. Afterward, when Dan had had a chance to get dressed again, Dr. Eze turned a smile on Phil.

“Your Omega seems happy and healthy. I commend you for that.”

The young Alpha blushed and nodded. He was clutching Dan’s hand again, which he’d taken hold of as soon as he’d come out from the screened off corner where he got dressed.

“Take good care of him and your bond will grow over the years,” she advised him.

“I will,” Phil said and squeezed the hand he held. He felt the squeeze back, and it made something in his chest feel both tense and relaxed at the same time.

They held hands in the car ride all the way home, though they stayed as silent as ever.

[Continued in Version 2]


	2. Chapter 2 - Unbreakable Bond v.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Unbreakable Bond" was actually the original title for Chapter 4, which I changed on a whim at the very last moment, thinking that I would use that title for Chapter 5 instead.
> 
> This second version has some sections that fully overlap with the first version, with minor alterations. However, there is a lot of new stuff here, and I think the overlapping sections help you see how the two versions interlock with one another and with the final version that appears in Chapter 6.

Omega Will set the gift bag down on the table in front of Dan and stepped back, a tiny smirk playing about their lips. The bag was shiny and red, with red paper sticking out of the top. Red: the color of bonding.

Dan reached for the bag, pushed aside the filmy paper, and pulled out something fuzzy from inside. It was also red. Will’s smirk deepened.

When Dan had shaken the folds out of the fuzzy, red object, it turned out to be a pretty, new jumper.

“It’s to celebrate your bonding,” Will explained.

“Thank you so much!” Dan said, hugging the soft jumper to his chest. Will was eyeing him with a look that he couldn’t quite read. “What?” he asked.

Will just shook their head.

“You’ll see. Just… Wear that tonight, okay?”

Dan frowned at them a bit, wanting to push for a better answer than that, but he could tell by the way Will had folded up their lips that they weren’t saying anything more. He sighed and stroked the soft wool of the jumper instead.

“Okay,” he agreed.

It was Saturday evening, and he and Alpha Phil had been bonded since the past Wednesday. The thought of it still startled him every time he remembered it. He was a bonded Omega now, with a bright red bonding mark splashed across his shoulder and a new scent to match. Even thinking of it now made his stomach tighten and his head swim with happiness. The only problem was…

Well, the problem had started the very next day after they’d bonded. When Dan had woken, his Alpha was gone.

When the realization had struck him, he’d sat bolt upright in bed, eyes raking the room for any sign of him. But he’d sensed at once that the Alpha was nowhere near.

“Shh, shh, no need to fret, dear,” he’d heard someone say from nearby, and he’d whipped his head around to see Omega Kat rising from one of the chairs at Phil’s table. “He’s just gone to the Academy, but he’ll be back this afternoon as usual.”

At her words, some of the tension had eased from Dan’s body — just enough for him to notice how his every muscle ached. He’d lain back down with a groan as the other Omega came to stand beside the bed, and he’d gazed up into her sympathetic blue eyes as tears began to form at the corners of his own.

“I know the separation is difficult to bear when you’ve just bonded,” she’d murmured, reaching out a cool hand to brush the hair back from his forehead. “It was very hard for him to leave you, too.” She had breathed out a laugh. “It took his Alpha Father ordering him to go to finally tear him away.”

“I slept through all that?” Dan had marveled.

“You need the rest,” she’d replied, smoothing back an errant curl. “And he needs to attend his lectures.”

Dan had pulled a deep breath into his lungs, trying to calm the panicked racing of his heart. His Alpha would be back. He hadn’t been abandoned. Phil would be back.

“It’s difficult for us,” Omega Kat had murmured, perching on the edge of the bed. “Omegas like you and I can never be our Alpha’s priority.” Her eyes had been fixed on him still, but he could tell her thoughts were focused somewhere outside this room, just the same as his own were. “It gets easer with time.”

Dan had nodded, feeling absolutely miserable. Phil had left him at home before, of course, when he was ill or on occasions like the other night when Phil’s Alpha Father had taken him out to his club. It had never felt like this before, though, like a piece of him had been ripped away.

Phil had come home that evening after a long day at the Academy to find Dan in his Omega Mother’s quarters, helping the twins build sculptures out of modeling clay. Omega Kat had kindly invited Dan over, knowing that it would be hard on him to be left alone all day, missing his Alpha. Dan had been grateful for the distraction, but later on he’d begun to regret it. He should have been in his Alpha’s room, waiting for him as soon as he returned home. That would have fixed things…or at least not made them any worse.

Because when Alpha Phil had burst into his mother’s rooms looking for his missing Omega, Dan had been able to physically feel the fear and relief pouring out from him. He couldn’t help feeling guilty for having made his Alpha worry, and that had made him timid and unsure as he’d greeted Phil. He’d found it hard to meet his eye, and the Alpha had responded to the Omega’s apparent coolness in kind. He’d dropped his hands that Dan was sure had been reaching to embrace him, and he’d stepped back, keeping a slight distance between himself and the Omega.

Even after they’d returned to their own quarters, the strange distance between them had remained.

“Better get started on homework,” Phil had said the moment they’d walked through the door. His voice had been a little bit too loud.

“I’ll get you some water,” Dan had replied a little bit too quickly, and he had spun on his heel and hurried out the door almost before he’d finished speaking.

They’d exchanged very few more words throughout the rest of the evening, as the Alpha worked on his homework and the Omega did his best to stay out of his way. This proved harder than either of them had expected. With their sensitive noses, they’d always been able to smell more or less what mood the other was in, but now that they were bonded, it was practically as though they could read one another’s thoughts. Dan had been sat all the way on the other side of the room from where Phil was slouched over his desk. He’d been doing his best to control his thoughts, to not dwell on how stand-offish Phil had seemed, to not agonize over what must be going through Phil’s mind. Yet he could feel how distracted the Alpha was all the way from the other side of the room, and he knew it must be at least partially his fault.

When it had finally come time for bath and then bed, they both had a very difficult time just relaxing and falling asleep. Without discussing it, the two of them had climbed into opposite sides of the bed, keeping a sizable distance in between, but both had lain awake for a long time in the dark, trying to remain as still as possible to let the other fall asleep. The Omega had spent half the night wondering how they had managed to sleep beside one another so naturally and easily the past few nights. What had changed now?

They had woken curled up next to each other, and that was something, at least, but they had both been exhausted. Neither had got more than a few hours of sleep.

Dan had woken first, as years of practice had trained his body to wake before his Master did. He’d let out a long sigh, wishing he could stay there next to Phil under the warm duvet for the rest of the day. Instead, he’d slid out of bed as quietly as he could, wanting to let the Alpha sleep for a while longer before he woke him, got dressed in the chill of the February morning, and then headed downstairs for breakfast.

By the time Phil had woken, the space next to him in bed had cooled and Dan was stood at the wardrobe across the room, pulling out Phil’s uniform to get it ready for him to wear.

“G’morning,” the Alpha had rasped in his sleepless voice. The Omega had turned bleary eyes on him and managed a quick smile.

“Good morning, Alpha Phil. They just brought up your breakfast, if you’re ready to get up and eat it.”

Phil had nodded and forced himself to shove his covers off and roll out of bed. He’d gone about his morning routine in a zombie-like state, and Dan had mostly stayed out of his way until it was time to dress him.

When the Omega had stepped up to him and started unbuttoning his night shirt, the Alpha had fallen suddenly very still. He’d just stood there, letting himself feel the light touches of the Omega’s fingertips brushing his chest and abdomen as he’d worked his way down the front of the shirt. When his shirt was off and the Omega’s fingers were reaching for his pajama bottoms, he’d stopped him.

“I, uh… I can do that part,” he had muttered.

Dan’s hands had dropped to his sides, and his eyes had fallen towards the floor. Otherwise he might have noticed that, when the Alpha’s pajamas slipped down to his ankles, they revealed that he was already half-hard. By the time Dan looked up again, though, the Alpha had grabbed his trousers off their hanger and yanked them on. Without a word spoken between them, Dan had helped his Master into his shirt and then his blazer and tie, and then they were ready to go.

At the Academy, during the Alpha’s games class that morning, the other Omegas had crowded around Dan again, congratulating him on his new status as a bonded Omega.

“Did it hurt much?” Gerald had asked in a low voice. There hadn’t been any students or tutors anywhere nearby, but the Omegas knew it was better to keep their conversation discreet nevertheless.

Dan had shaken his head and given the other boy a confused look.

“No, it didn’t hurt at all. Alpha Phil was very gentle with me. Well, unless you mean the biting part. That hurt a little bit,” he’d amended.

“You’re so lucky,” Carol had muttered. “My Alpha wouldn’t know the word ‘gentle’ if it bit her in the arse.”

The other Omegas had giggled at that. It was rare that any of them had the guts to curse out loud, even just amongst themselves.

“You’re lucky that your heat is over, too. Now you don’t have to worry about doing anything again for awhile,” Perry had put in. “When you go for your doctor’s visit, they’ll probably tell your Alpha to leave you alone when you aren’t in heat.”

“Yeah,” Carol had nodded her agreement. “They can actually hurt you if they try to do anything when you aren’t in heat.”

Dan had frowned. He’d heard Omegas say things like that before, but he’d thought it was just because their Alphas were too rough with them. But if Perry and Carol’s doctors had told them they couldn’t have sex when they weren’t in heat, maybe that meant that he and Phil couldn’t either. Omega Kat had told him that she’d scheduled a visit for them to see Dr. Eze that afternoon, once lectures were over for the day. What if the doctor told Phil that he needed to keep his hands off Dan when he wasn’t in heat? Dan’s heart sank at the thought. That would only make things worse.

“What does your mark look like?” Laurel had asked, interrupting his train of thought. “You have to show us sometime, when it’s warmer out.”

Dan had already sneaked a few peeks at the mark in the mirror the day before, while Phil was still out, though most of what he’d been able to see were a few bruises and the already-healing puncture wounds. The mark itself wasn’t actually the Alpha’s teeth marks. Those were very light and would heal and disappear quickly. Instead, a bonding mark was a sort of chemical stain just below the surface of the skin, the aftermath of the rush of hormones the bonding had released.

“I don’t really know what it looks like yet,” he’d shrugged, wincing slightly as the movement irritated the bite mark. “I haven’t been able to get a good look at it yet.”

“I bet it’s really bright,” Perry had murmured, and everyone had looked at him. “Because you two are so close already.”

Dan had seen Perry and Carol’s marks before. Perry’s was a splash of vibrant brick red over his right shoulder, while Carol’s was a duller maroon. It was normal for the mark to be darker when the bond was new, and bonding marks generally brightened over time as the pair grew closer and strengthened their connection.

Dan had hidden a blush and shaken his head.

“I doubt it looks any different than anyone else’s,” he had muttered.

The others had dropped it after that, and the conversation had moved on to which of them they all thought would be bonded next. Dan had had a hard time paying attention, though. He’d kept thinking about what the others had said. By the end of the day, he had decided that, as embarrassing as it would be, he was going to ask Dr. Eze about it when he saw her that afternoon.

The visit to the doctor was a routine one, or so Omega Kat had told him. Dr. Eze would prescribe him birth control of course, but Omega Kat had explained that it was also important that Omegas get a full pelvic exam after being knotted for the first time, to ensure that no injuries had occurred. Dan had been kind of nervous about that part of the visit, but Dr. Eze had a friendly, brisk manner, and to his surprise, Phil had slipped his hand into the Omega’s and held it the entire time. The moment their hands had met, Dan had felt much of the tension ease and his fast-beating heart begin to calm to a normal rate.

Afterward, when Dan had had a chance to get dressed again, Dr. Eze had turned a smile on Phil.

“Your Omega seems happy and healthy,” she had told him in her round, Nigerian accent. “I commend you for that.”

The young Alpha had blushed and nodded. Dan was stood beside him, wishing he would take his hand again. But he didn’t.

“Take good care of him and your bond will grow over the years,” the doctor had continued.

“I will,” the Alpha had said, his voice firm, if a little higher-pitched than normal. Dan could see that the doctor was getting ready to go, so he mustered up all the courage he had and cleared his throat.

“Yes, Dan?” she’d asked, turning her smile on him. Dan had known her for years now, so he wasn’t scared of speaking to her as he might have been with a stranger. The Beta doctor specialized in Omega care and had been treating the Omegas of the Lester household for over twenty years now. She had overseen the birth of Phil and all of his siblings, and it was also she who gave Dan his yearly check-ups and came to see him if he was sick.

“I was wondering, um…” he’d said and then cleared his throat again. “Well, you see, I heard that it’s, um, well, dangerous for us to…you know…have sex when I’m not in heat?” He was never this nervous discussing sex with his Omega friends, but asking about something like this in front of Phil was absolutely mortifying. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Phil’s head turn sharply toward him, but he hadn’t dared look to see what expression he was making.

The doctor had nodded, her expression serious.

“I often caution against non-heat penetrative sex,” she had confirmed. “Other sexual behaviors, such as oral sex or outer sex, are more suitable for when an Omega is not in heat. However, if your Alpha is capable of being very careful, it is possible.”

“Oh,” Dan had said, not sure whether this was a good answer or not. He knew Phil was very capable of being careful with him, but… “So, is it dangerous then?”

She’d made an equivocal gesture with her hands.

“It can be, for a male Omega especially,” she’d said. “Your body will provide no natural lubrication, nor will it open as easily. You see, the entrance to your uterus is only open during heat. That’s part of the reason why it is nearly impossible to become pregnant outside of heat. At other times, it is closed off by the cloacal flap. It’s sort of like the epiglottis in your throat that separates your trachea from your esophagus. Non-heat penetrative sex that is too rough can dislodge the cloacal flap or even damage it. In severe cases, this can lead to sepsis, infertility, or even death.”

Dan had swallowed hard. He’d dared a look at Phil then and had seen that the Alpha had turned very pale.

“Oh,” he’d said again.

The doctor had smiled, looking between them both.

“I’m not trying to scare you,” she’d explained. “I just want you to be informed about the risks. No sexual behavior is completely without risk. If you would like, though, I can explain to you and your Alpha what precautions to take to minimize the risks.”

He’d shot Phil another glance, waiting to see how he would respond. The Alpha’s forehead had been all wrinkled up, and Dan could tell that he was having trouble making up his mind. The Omega had taken matters into his own hands again, turning to the doctor and biting his lip before answering for them.

“Yes, please,” he’d said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Um, just so we’ll know.”

So they’d ended up getting a lecture on the proper use of lubricant and stretching with a brief aside about the importance of good communication in preventing injury. Dan had stood stock still the entire time, keeping his eyes locked on the small doctor’s face as she’d explained different positions that might be more comfortable for him and absolutely refusing to look at his Alpha beside him. It didn’t help. He could still feel every ounce of Phil’s embarrassment. On the one hand, he fully and completely regretted ever bringing the topic up. But on the other hand…at least now they knew.

They were both absolutely silent on the ride home. When they’d once again been alone in Phil’s room, the Alpha had spoken at last.

“Um, why… Why did you ask Dr. Eze about that?” he’d said, raising his eyes to meet Dan’s for the first time in what felt like forever. They had been standing just inside the door, which Phil had closed behind them only a moment before.

The Omega had clasped his hands in front of him, strangely shy in front of the one person he knew best in the entire world.

“Because I wanted to know?” he’d squeaked. He really wished Phil wouldn’t stare at him quite so intensely.

The Alpha had bit his lip for a moment before speaking again.

“I, um… I didn’t know it was so dangerous,” he’d murmured and then chewed his lip again for a moment. “I guess…it’s good that you asked her about it. I’m sorry I didn’t think to.”

“It’s not your fault you didn’t think about it,” Dan had rushed to say, his fingers tangling together more and more. “I mean, I only thought about it because some of the other Omegas said…um, that we couldn’t do that.”

“Oh, I see,” Phil had said.

Dan had waited, expecting the Alpha to continue, but he hadn’t. He’d just stood there a moment longer, staring at Dan and radiating uncertainty, and then he’d shaken his head and sighed.

“I’m very sorry, Dan. I’ll try to be a better Alpha and take better care of you from now on.”

And before Dan quite knew what was happening, the Alpha had stepped toward him, pulled him close, pressed a kiss against his hair, and then released him once again. 

“I’m going to go talk to my Alpha Father,” Phil had said, taking a step back toward the door.

“Okay,” Dan had said, though what he’d really longed to do was demand Phil tell him just what was going on inside his head. But then Phil was gone, and Dan was left alone to brood. Something had happened to throw things off between them. Or had it? Maybe things had only been so easy and natural these past few days because their hormones had been driving all their actions. Now that it was back to just the two of them, just Dan the slave and his Master Phil, with no rut or heat to draw them together, maybe things like lust and romance simply didn’t fit into the picture anymore. After all, those things had never been part of their relationship before…

Just the thought of it made Dan want to cry.

The very next day, as the household was turned upside down by the flurry of preparations for Alpha Phil’s coming-of-age celebration, Dan had tracked down Omega Will in the gardens where they were cleverly hiding from the chaos inside. And once Dan had poured his heart out about everything that had — or rather _hadn’t_ — been going on between him and Phil the past couple of days, they had nodded sagely and stroked their chin and told him they knew just the thing. They’d beckoned Dan to follow them up to the rooms they shared with Alpha Sophie, where they’d pulled out a gift bag and set it down in front of Dan.

And now here the two of them stood, a couple of minutes later, in Alpha Sophie’s quarters, with Dan holding a beautiful brand new jumper up in front of him and trying not to frown in confusion. He had no doubt that he would look very good in it. Red was a great color on him; it brought out the creaminess of his skin tone and the richness of the brown in his eyes and hair. But Dan couldn’t quite believe that Will was expecting that alone to clear things up between him and his Alpha.

Finally, he set the jumper aside and looked up at Will again with a tentative smile.

“I found that online the other day and knew you had to have it,” they explained. “I was going to give it to you at our little family gathering tomorrow, but I think you need it now.”

“I hope it works,” he said.

“I think it will,” they answered, reaching out and giving his elbow a soft squeeze. “You should run along and start getting ready, though. The guests will start arriving soon.”

No sooner had the Omega opened the wardrobe in his and Alpha Phil’s quarters, looking for a suitable pair of trousers to wear with the jumper, than the door opened behind him and the Alpha himself rushed in.

Dan turned to see that his Alpha was sweaty and a little out of breath. He’d been downstairs, helping his Omega Mother oversee the preparations for the evening’s events. Normally, Omega Lester was in charge of arranging any of the household’s entertainments, but he was gone for the weekend, on a sudden trip to Paris. He had announced the trip almost as soon as Alpha Lester had announced his son’s coming-of-age party, and no one in the household was naive enough to believe the two events were unrelated. It was a diplomatic retreat — an acknowledgement of the fact that he couldn’t prevent his mate from throwing a celebration for his slave’s Alpha son but also a not-so-subtle reminder that he wanted no part in Phil’s life.

“They’re all going to be here in less than an hour,” Phil exclaimed as he dashed over to the wardrobe and reached in around Dan, rummaging around for his own outfit.

“You need a shower first,” the Omega stated firmly, taking hold of the suit jacket the Alpha had been pulling from its hanger and wresting it gently from his grasp. “And I’ve already laid out a suit for you.” He gestured toward the bed, where indeed one of Phil’s nicest suits was neatly set out along with a shirt, socks, and a pair of smart shoes on the floor beneath.

“Thanks,” the Alpha said with a sheepish grin and dashed off toward the bathroom. The Omega felt his lips tug up into a fond smile as he followed behind his Alpha at a slower pace. While Phil stripped down and leapt into the shower, yelping at the water that he’d been too impatient to allow to warm up, Dan set a towel on the warming rack for him, put his dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, and then brought him a fresh set of underwear to put on after his shower. 

The Alpha was jumping out again only a few minutes later, having quickly lathered his hair and scrubbed his skin. Dan was waiting with the now-warm towel, which he handed to his Alpha at once, doing his best to keep his eyes lowered. It was really difficult, though, and he couldn’t stop himself peeking for just a moment at the subtle curve of the Alpha’s back and the firm roundness of his buttocks. Fortunately, Phil was too distracted by the need to hurry to notice his Omega’s wayward gaze.

When Phil was dry and his hair fixed, Dan followed him back out into the bedroom and helped him into his clothes, not letting the antsy Alpha go until he had brushed away every last bit of lint and made sure his suit jacket lay perfectly across his shoulders.

“We’re going to be late, Dan,” the Alpha whined as the Omega made one more tiny adjustment to his tie.

“No we’re not,” the Omega murmured. “It’s still another twenty minutes before the guests are supposed to start arriving.”

“Yes, but you’ve got to get ready too!” Phil returned with a snort.

“It will only take a few minutes. You go down first and I’ll be right along,” Dan said, stepping back and eyeing the Alpha’s form. He looked exquisite in his closely-tailored suit.

“But…” The Alpha stopped himself midway through his objection, bit his lip and then nodded. “Okay. Just…please hurry.”

The Omega couldn’t help hearing the slight tremor that ran through the other boy’s voice or feeling the tendrils of trepidation that curled out from within him. He glanced up into the Alpha’s eyes and saw them fixed on him. Then, without warning, Phil leaned down and pulled his Omega into a tight embrace, squeezing him so hard that Dan couldn’t breathe for a moment or two. He heard the Alpha draw in a deep breath before releasing him and stepping back.

“I’ll see you downstairs,” he said, with one last meaningful look. And then, before Dan had a chance to scold him for crushing his suit or demand that he let the Omega straighten it out, the Alpha turned and hurried off again.

What the Omega didn’t know was that he wasn’t really supposed to come to the party that evening. It wasn’t the sort of things slaves would normally be allowed to attend, except as workers. But Dan wouldn’t be there as a servant. He would be there as Phil’s mate. He knew without having to be told that he wouldn’t be allowed to stand at Phil’s side or hold his hand. It simply wasn’t seemly for an Omega slave to stand at an Alpha’s side like an equal. That was a place reserved for the Alpha’s legal spouse. Dan would sit with Omega Kat at the side of the room where they could watch the proceedings without drawing too much attention.

Dan knew that Omega Kat had been given special permission by her Alpha to attend her son’s coming-of-age celebration. He had been surprised when Phil had asked him to come as well. He’d claimed it was to keep his mother company, but this had only been partially true. In fact, the Alpha was nervous. His Alpha Father had invited many of his prominent friends and acquaintances to the celebration, as a means of further introducing his son to wider society. Even Phil’s formidable Alpha Grandmother had flown in from the villa in southern France where she had retired several years previously. Phil wasn’t sure who made him more nervous, the strangers or his grandmother, but what he was sure of was that having his Omega nearby, where he could see or smell him any time he needed, would help to calm his nerves.

When he opened the door to the parlor, the first sound he heard was his grandmother’s stern tones, raised in an order to one of the house slaves. He could see her enthroned in an armchair next to the fireplace with Phil’s Omega Grandmother sat in the chair on the opposite side.

“—and I expect to see my wife’s glass kept full all evening, for as long as she wants. Is that clear?”

“Yes, madam,” the Beta slave replied with a deep bow before making a dignified retreat into the back of the house. When the slave had gone, his grandmother’s eyes turned toward him, making a sweeping assessment of his appearance before nodding a begrudging approval.

“Come here, Boy,” she called, beckoning from across the wide room, “and greet your grandmothers.”

Phil crossed the room and dutifully shook his Alpha Grandmother’s hand and leaned over and gave his smiling Omega Grandmother a peck on the cheek. He loved them both very much. He really did…but he also knew his Alpha Grandmother had never quite liked him as much as she liked Sophie. She had very particular ideas about what an Alpha should be, and he’d always been a little too quiet and soft for her liking. He also knew that she blamed his mother for this. She thought the slave had gone too easy on her son, coddled him too much, and now they were suffering the consequences.

“So you’ve bonded your Omega slave now, have you?” his Alpha Grandmother asked, eyeing him with a keen gaze.

“Yes, Grandmother,” he replied, keeping his voice steady by sheer force of will.

“Just don’t forget he’s only a slave,” she grumbled, her eyes narrowing a bit. “Sometimes Alphas do.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” he nodded, inclining his head in deference.

She looked like she was on the verge of saying more, but the Beta slave from earlier returned then with drinks for both of Phil’s grandmothers, and he was released with a wave of his Alpha Grandmother’s hand.

As he made his way toward the other side of the room, where he could see his mother sat with hands folded on an out-of-the-way divan, he was distracted by the sound of the door opening behind him. He turned just in time to see Dan slip inside, a sight that made his lips part a little in surprise. The Omega was dressed in a beautiful red jumper that Phil had never seen him wear before, and a pair of fitted black jeans. He looked even more lovely than normal, and all at once the Alpha’s pulse was pounding loud in his ears.

“Phil,” he heard a voice from behind him and turned to see his Alpha Father stood there. “Our guests will be arriving soon. We must prepare to greet them.”

With a pang of regret, Phil followed his father from the room, casting one last glance toward his Omega, who was now heading over to take a seat beside Omega Kat.

The first guests arrived at 18:00 on the dot, and for the next half hour or so, Phil stood near the front door, greeting people and shaking their hands as they made their way up into the parlor. At first, he tried his hardest to remember all their names, but then he realized there were simply too many new people, and he gave up. At last, the majority of the guests had arrived, and his Alpha Father announced that they could go up to the parlor themselves. A rush of relief flooded Phil’s chest at his words. The moment they stepped into the room again, his eyes darted over to where Dan sat, making inaudible conversation with Omega Kat, and he felt himself relax. It was such a strange quirk of Alpha biology that having his bonded Omega nearby, within his sight, smelling content, made him feel so at ease with himself and the world.

Dinner began at 19:00, after a few minutes of mingling with guests and making small talk, and as Phil was leading the way into the dining room, he passed by his mother and Dan, casting them both quick, secret smiles. As his eyes fixed on his Omega’s smiling lips, a glint of something metal caught his eye. He glanced a little to the side and saw that Dan’s new jumper had a zipper on its left shoulder that ran from the collar all the way to the end of his sleeve. He frowned a little to himself as he turned away again. What an odd place for a zipper.

At first Phil was nervous. There were so many people here tonight, most of them Alphas and most of them very important. But every time he would glance over and see his Omega sat there, chatting with his mum or gazing about the room with wide eyes or catching the Alpha’s eye and grinning, he felt a little surge of confidence flow through him. 

One of the times he looked over, Dan had his head turned away and bent slightly to catch something Omega Kat was saying. The way his neck curved down in a long, sinuous line that disappeared beneath the collar of his shirt was so beautiful it made Phil’s breath catch in his throat.

This was the moment he first truly took note of the zip along the shoulder of the Omega’s jumper. For just a moment he completely forgot about the conversation between his Alpha Father and some older Alpha who was a Senator or QC or something important like that. Instead, he was lost imagining his fingers grasping the end of the zipper and pulling it slowly until the red fabric began to fall away and the creamy smooth skin underneath began to appear.

“Isn’t that right, Phil?” his Alpha Father’s voice intruded on his fantasy, and he shook himself, turning back toward the conversation with a quickly-conjured expression of interest.

“Yes, Father,” he replied, clueless as to what he was agreeing to but knowing that it was generally best to agree with his Alpha.

He managed to focus his attention for several minutes after that before, during a lull in the conversation, he glanced back over toward his Omega for reassurance, and the silvery glint of the zipper caught his attention again. Dan was gazing back at him this time, and he felt light-headed all of a sudden as, completely without his permission, his brain began to imagine the Omega peering up at him with those eyes while he slowly pulled back the open edge of the zipper and leaned forward to place his lips against the warm skin of the Omega’s neck—

“Phil,” a sharp whisper in his ear snapped him back to reality. “Stop eye-fucking your Omega before someone else notices.”

It was Sophie, who had walked up beside him without him noticing and was now leaning away from his ear with a mischievous smirk.

He couldn’t help blushing.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he murmured, hoping his tone sounded dignified rather than sullen.

“Sure you don’t,” she grinned, and then she leaned toward him again, and he felt her hand slipping something into his pocket as she bent to whisper, “Will asked me to give that to you. I thought they were just being whimsical, but I guess they knew more than I gave them credit for.”

Phil reached down to feel the object she’d placed in his pocket. It felt like a bottle of some sort. He frowned.

“Don’t take it out until you get back to your room,” she told him in a low voice as she began to move away again. Her smirk was still firmly in place. “Unless you’re looking to be thoroughly embarrassed.” Then she winked at him and turned, jumping immediately into a conversation between two Alphas he vaguely thought might work for the Central Bank. He had to admit he was a little jealous of how assuredly she was able to interact with all of these very intimidating people. Maybe it was just because she was older and had more practice.

His Alpha Grandmother stalked up to him then, with two other Alphas in tow who looked just as old and sour-faced as she was, and he knew that with his Gran’s eagle eyes on him, there would be no more opportunities for daydreaming.

At the end of dinner, his Alpha Father stood up and made a speech and then announced the very expensive coming-of-age portrait of Phil he had commissioned, and they all toasted the young Alpha, causing him to blush furiously at all of the attention.

After dinner, things were more relaxed, and some of Phil’s classmates and friends showed up while many of the prominent people left for important appointments. The party moved into the ballroom, where there was a DJ and cake and presents various people had brought for Phil. Patrick managed to drag Phil out on the dance floor a couple of times, but for the most part, he managed to hang around the sidelines and avoid embarrassing himself by trying to dance. It wasn’t until well into this portion of the evening that Phil noticed that his mum and Dan hadn’t followed them in there, and he felt his heart sink a little. Of course, they’d been able to be there for the important part of the event, but still…Though everyone around him seemed to be having the time of their lives, it all fell a little flat as far as he was concerned.

He found himself with his hand in his pocket on more than one occasion, his fingers rubbing over the little bottle that his sister had left there. He’d slipped into the toilet just after dinner and had a look just to confirm it was what he’d thought it was. When he’d seen the label, he’d frowned a little. Why had Omega Will wanted Sophie to give him a bottle of lube? Surely they knew that he and Dan wouldn’t be having sex again until his next heat. Or maybe they thought he was the sort of Alpha who was willing to jeopardize his Omega’s health and safety just for his own pleasure? He frowned even more deeply. He’d thought Will knew him better than that…

Upstairs, Dan was busily overseeing the house slaves who had been placed in charge of bringing Alpha Phil’s gifts up to his room. Most of the gifts were laid out on the table in Phil’s quarters now — a beautiful pen set a close family friend had given him, an engraved card case from Sophie, and the matching set of calling cards from his eldest Beta brother — but Dan held what he considered to be the most important gift of them all cradled against his chest while he watched and waited for the house slaves to finish their business.

The last of the slaves to leave was the one who had been tasked with stoking the fire in the grate into a warm blaze again. Her name was Lena, and she was an older slave, close to the age at which Alpha Lester would settle a pension on her and allow her to retire, and it took her slow hands a while to get the fire really going. Dan gave her a hand up from the floor when she finally finished, and she cast a knowing grin up at him.

“Seems like just last week Master Phil brought you home,” she said, patting his hand before she released it. “I suppose before much longer we’ll see you with a gaggle of little ones running about your knees.”

Dan bit his lip as a flush crept up into his cheeks and he struggled to come up with something to say in reply. Lena shook her head and laughed.

“Don’t mind me,” she told him as she made her way out of the room. “Good night, Omega Dan.”

“G-good night!” he called as she shut the door behind her.

The moment she was gone, he dropped down onto the plush rug in front of the fireplace and set the object he’d been holding down in front of him. It was a thick-spined book with a little window in the front that showed the title: “1998 - 2003.” Omega Kat had handed it to him after all the guests had left the parlor, explaining that it was her coming-of-age gift to Phil but she hadn’t wanted him to open it in front of everyone else. When she’d seen Dan’s eyes grow wide at the dates printed on the front, she’d smiled at him and let him know he could take a peek once he got up to Phil’s room, if he liked.

He opened the book to the first page, and there was his own face staring up at him, thinner and paler than it was now. Beside it was Phil’s face, rounder and grinning. It was a picture Omega Kat had taken of them on Dan’s first day in the Lester household. He looked scared in the picture. He wished there were a way to travel back in time and reassure his nine-year-old self that he’d made the right decision.

He flipped the page to a shot of him and Phil sitting on a sunny beach eating ice cream cones — his first summer holiday with the Lester clan. It had been taken only a few months after the first one, but already he looked like a completely different boy. His skin was tanned brown, he didn’t look half-starved anymore, and there was a huge grin on his sticky face.

He looked at the facing page — Phil’s first day attending the upper level of the Academy the following autumn. There he and Dan stood side by side in their uniforms, both looking a little uncertain.

As Dan turned the pages, he saw picture after picture of him and his Master over the years, at family birthday celebrations, on holiday trips or events held by the Academy, even the occasional candid shot of them just around the house. He found that his heart was pounding in his chest and there was a stinging behind his eyes. He’d never realized Phil’s mum had taken so many pictures of them over the years. Had she been planning this all along?

Phil found him there a while later, having at last managed to slip away from his own party without anyone noticing. He had expected Dan to be in bed already — the hour was well after midnight — and so he had eased the door open as quietly as he could only to discover Dan seated on the rug before the fireplace, with his back turned toward the door, hunched over something he held in his lap. The sight made something in his chest clench, and a little thrill spread through his veins.

He made his way over to the fireplace, but it wasn’t until he was crouching down behind the other boy that Dan realized he was there. The Omega turned quickly, and the Alpha saw that there were tears streaking his face.

“Dan?” he said. “Are you okay?”

The Omega’s lips spread into a smile and he nodded his head vigorously before throwing his arms open and flinging them around his Alpha’s chest. As the Omega buried his face there, the Alpha felt his heart suddenly begin to flutter in his chest, and he put his arms around the other boy too.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” he murmured, hearing how breathless his own voice sounded.

He felt the Omega’s head shake back and forth.

“Nothing,” came the muffled response. “I’m just happy. I’m really happy.”

Phil felt an involuntary smile tugging at his lips.

“Me too,” he replied.

Then Dan tilted his head back, and when he looked into Phil’s eyes, his own eyes were so bright with the tears he had just finished crying, and then they closed, and he was stretching his face up towards Phil, so Phil bent forward and kissed him, softly once, twice, and then fervently, with all the pent up worry and frustration of the past few days.

When they both pulled back a moment later, he could hear how ragged the Omega’s breathing was. He was looking up into the Alpha’s eyes again, his lips curling slightly at the ends, and Phil’s heart felt like it was pounding right in the back of his throat. Then a little glint of silver caught the firelight, and he glanced over to see the zipper dangling at the collar of the Omega’s jumper. So his fingers did as they’d been itching to do all night. They reached up and grasped the zipper, and he saw Dan’s eyes widen and shift to the side as he turned to watch what Phil was doing.

As Phil pulled at the zipper, the edges of it slowly fell open, showing the Omega’s skin softly glowing in the golden light from the fire. But as he reached the middle of Dan’s shoulder, he discovered something unexpected — his skin was no longer the pale gold of firelight but was instead stained with a brilliant scarlet color. He paused, blinking in confusion for a moment, until it dawned on him what it was — the Omega’s bonding mark.

He pulled at the zipper a little more quickly now, suddenly filled with an intense curiosity to see everything that had been hidden beneath it. He was so focused that he didn’t even notice the way the Omega’s lips fell open or the way his breath caught in his throat as the Alpha bared more and more of his skin.

When Phil’s fingers reached the end of the jumper’s sleeve, Dan’s entire left shoulder and arm were exposed, and the Alpha could at last see his full bonding mark. It stretched halfway down his left shoulder-blade, a scarlet sunburst splashed across the Omega’s skin. The sight of it made Phil feel excited and bewildered all at once. Had he really caused that? Just by biting Dan and bonding with him? He glanced up and met the Omega’s wide eyes and then, without breaking eye contact bent and placed a soft kiss against the bright red stain.

The Omega sucked in a sharp breath and threw his head back suddenly, making Phil jerk upright in surprise.

“Was that… Um, I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked. He’d forgotten that the skin there might still be sensitive to the touch.

“No, no,” Dan breathed in response, opening his eyes that he had suddenly clamped shut. “It didn’t hurt at all.” He turned to meet Phil’s gaze again. “It felt amazing.”

“Oh,” Phil said. Then, “Oh…”

With a small grin, he leant forward and pressed his lips against the mark again, this time a little more firmly. His grin widened as he heard the Omega gasp and then let out a small groan.

“Alpha, please…” he whispered. That was all the invitation Phil needed. A moment later, he was pushing the Omega down onto the soft rug beneath them and climbing on top of him, his lips pressing first against the Omega’s lips and then his cheek, his jaw, his throat, and then the mark on his shoulder again. He could feel the Omega’s hands come up behind his back and his fingers dig into the fabric of his suit jacket. 

As he grazed his lips over the bonding mark, the Omega threw his head back again, moaning softly, so Phil parted his lips and ran his teeth ever so lightly over the skin of his Omega’s shoulder. He was rewarded by a whimper and the feeling of the Omega’s hips rising off the rug beneath them to rut against the Alpha’s. He paused for a moment, shocked at how hard Dan already was inside his jeans. He’d heard that bonded Omegas enjoyed having their Alpha stimulate their bonding marks, but he hadn’t expected Dan’s to be this sensitive.

He bit down a little bit, not enough to hurt, but enough to make it feel like a bite.

“Phil,” the Omega groaned. “Please…”

The Alpha raised his head, gazing down at his Omega’s blissed-out expression with a slight grin on his face.

“Please what?” he murmured, bending his head over the Omega’s shoulder once more, ready to bite down again.

“Please, Alpha,” came the Omega’s voice. “Please fuck me.”

Phil felt his heart stop for a moment. He closed his mouth, forgetting all about his teasing, and sat back on his heels, frowning down at the other boy.

“Oh,” he said.

Dan’s eyes popped open then and he raised his head a little.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his cheeks still flushed and his eyes slightly glazed over.

“It’s just… I don’t really think we should,” Phil explained, gazing down at the beautiful boy beneath him. “Since Dr. Eze said it’s dangerous and everything.”

Now it was Dan’s turn to frown.

“But she said it’s okay as long as we’re careful,” he countered and then smiled up at his Alpha. “I trust you to be careful.”

Phil’s forehead wrinkled and he nibbled at his bottom lip.

“Even if we’re careful… I just don’t think it’s worth the risk. She said it could kill you.”

The Omega let a little snort of air out of his nose.

“Lots of things could kill me, Phil.” He reached up and placed his palms on either side of the Alpha’s face. “Lots of things could kill you, too. That’s just part of being human.”

“I know, but,” Phil swallowed, trying to come up with the words to explain what he was thinking, “I don’t think I could live with myself if you got hurt and it was my fault. As much as I want to—“ He looked down at Dan, at the way the firelight sparked golden highlights from his hair and glinted off his eyes and warmed his skin, at the heat in his gaze as he kept his eyes fixed on Phil, “As much as I really want to right now, it’s my job to protect you, not put you in danger.”

He watched as a crease appeared between Dan’s eyebrows.

“You can’t protect me from everything, Phil,” he murmured.

“I know that, but—“ Phil began, but Dan interrupted him.

“No, I mean you _shouldn’t_ protect me from everything. I don’t want you to. Because if you start thinking like that, telling yourself that you have to stop me from doing the things I want to protect me… Are you going to tell me to stop riding in cars because I could get killed in an accident? Are you going to tell me to stop going downstairs because I could fall and break my neck on them? To stop looking out the window because I could fall out? To stop standing near the fire because I could burn myself?” He shook his head, never breaking eye contact with the Alpha. “And you know what is one of the most dangerous things an Omega can do, Phil? Have kids. Are you going to decide that we shouldn’t have children because that’s too dangerous for me too, and you couldn’t forgive yourself if it hurt me?” He shook his head again. “Protecting me from everything might keep me alive longer, but what kind of life would it be?”

For a while Phil could only stare down at the Omega, shocked by how serious his expression had become.

[Dan convinces Phil that they can engage in sexual activity as long as they’re careful, and they have sex again for the first time since bonding. See Chapter 6 for details]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ultimately, I ended up discarding both versions of the chapter because I felt that they were really dragging out the pacing of the fic. There was a lot I liked in them but that I felt wasn't essential to the overall story I was telling. That's why I finally decided to skip ahead in the timeline and only touch on this part of Dan and Phil's relationship in a brief flashback.
> 
> As always, feel free to comment here or contact me on Twitter @phan_anonfics

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave feedback either here or on Twitter @phan_anonfics!


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